Early Hospitals

From Tents to Cabins to Clinics

The nation's first hospital was established in 1597 in St. Augustine. Since that time, Floridians have required medical care wherever it could be had: behind fort walls, under tents at military outposts and training grounds, at missionary camps deep in the marshes and forests, in the private homes and businesses of physicians and healers, and eventually at large public institutions and state-of-the-art facilities.

Bagdad Land and Lumber Company Commissary: Munson, Florida (193-)

The pharmacist Charles Spencer Stewart is at the far left. At the time a pharmacist was as much a doctor as a dispenser of drugs.

From New Towns to the Wildest Parts of the State

As Florida developed, it both grew in population and attracted entrepreneurs and tourists by the millions. Doctors established private health clinics catering to wealthy patients.

Major industries such as railroad, timber, and phosphate required salaried doctors and nurses to care for the workers in the camps and temporary communities that followed the companies as they expanded throughout the wildest parts of the state.

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